At 35 and in the form of his life with Gloucestershire, Michael Klinger hasn’t given up on the hope of playing for Australia

David Hopps18-Sep-2015Rarely has a player gone into a English domestic cup final bearing such a heavy responsibility as Michael Klinger, when he takes Gloucestershire to Lord’s on Saturday. Success brings with it high expectations and Klinger’s success in the Royal London One-Day Cup this season has been extraordinary: all-comers despatched with the broadest bat in the kingdom.In the West Country, many talk optimistically of a Gloucestershire revival, recalling the time around the turn of the century when they dominated English one-day cricket, sensing that Surrey can be conquered to bring their first limited-overs trophy since 2004.But it remains largely unproven whether Gloucestershire’s revival runs deep or whether they have been sustained largely by the exploits of one Australian batsman flowering late. A Lord’s final would not be the best time to have to answer it. Far better that Klinger, with 531 runs in the tournament to his credit – average 132.75, strike rate 92.50 – delivers one more time. Debate it later, preferably while holding a trophy, dripping with champagne.It was a gorgeous late summer afternoon at Nevil Road, where Klinger has been clunking the ball into the new flats behind the arm at regular intervals for much of the summer. To an Australian used to long boundaries, they must seem to have been built on the outfield. Gloucestershire’s players were in attendance for the pre-media day, grouped quietly as if they expected their marginal role. Most interviewers, this one included, predictably awaited a chat with an unassuming Australian whose reputation has never been higher.Michael Klinger has scored three centuries from seven games in the Royal London Cup•Getty ImagesKlinger has additional reasons to succeed, reasons that go beyond his captaincy of Gloucestershire, a county where his reputation has grown steadily in the past years, not just as a batsman but as a skilful, undemonstrative captain. No longer is he one of the least known overseas players on the circuit.He has never represented Australia, but his target is a place in their World T20 squad in India in March. He is 35. Australia do not make a habit of giving 35-year-olds debuts in the modern age. Especially 35-year-olds they have occasionally dismissed without a second thought.But he will not abandon hope while he is scoring so freely: the Sheffield Shield, the Big Bash League (where he was the leading run-maker last season), the Natwest t20 Blast and now the Royal London Cup. The runs keep coming and the statistics are beginning to overpower his date of birth.And Adam Voges, Australia’s third-oldest Test debutant since the war, made a hundred on Test debut in Dominica earlier this year, so even these days there are precedents for a late opportunity beyond the age of 35.Klinger (fourth from right): “There is no doubt that if I was scoring the runs at 25 that I have over the past four or five years then I would have played for Australia already”•Simon Cooper/PA Photos/Getty Images”There is no doubt that if I was scoring the runs at 25 that I have over the past four or five years then I would have played for Australia already,” Klinger said. “That’s my challenge now. In the past 18 months I have gone above and beyond that measure, so I have to keep doing that.”I think the last 18 months where I scored over 1000 runs in Shield cricket in Australia and did well in the Big Bash and then followed it up here in England has been my best prolonged period. It’s important to keep it going for one more game here and then the season back home in Australia. The next step is to hopefully play in the T20 World Cup.”It is tempting to propose that England has belatedly been the making of Klinger. After all, in his first seven seasons with Victoria, he made only two hundreds. He would have made his maiden hundred earlier, but Paul Reiffel, Victoria’s captain, declared when he was on 99 and asserted that it was a team game. It was another four years before he ticked that one off.This was rough justice, if justice at all, for a player who, at 15, had become the youngest to make a century in Victorian district cricket. He was preferred to Michael Clarke as captain of Australia Under-19, but Clarke has just retired from international cricket, a sated, feted Australian captain, whilst for Klinger the call has never come. The call that another Australia captain, Allan Border, said was virtually certain when he made a match-winning 80 on his one-day debut for Victoria, more years ago than he cares to remember.Leading South Australia to the 2010 Champions League semi-finals helped him develop his short-form batting•Getty ImagesHe prefers to remember two breakthroughs. The first came when he moved from Victoria to South Australia at 27, was given the chance to bat at No. 3 and open in one-dayers, and made three first-class centuries, one a double, in his first six weeks. Adelaide, a sociable country town where a side could stick together, also suited him.Easy runs on flat pitches, his detractors suggested, but one of them was at the Gabba, and it was more about him growing in maturity in response to the recognition that he was finally a senior player, assured of his place in the side, expected to deliver, not always giving way to those returning to the fold – be it David Hussey, Brad Hodge, Cameron White, Matthew Elliott.The second breakthrough – his short-form breakthrough – came when he took South Australia to the Champions League semi-final in South Africa in 2010. It is surely an indictment of cricket beyond the international game – or those who promoted it, or perhaps those who sought to undermine it – that this world club tournament failed to gain appeal, but it did good by Klinger. His assessment gives succour to the view that the abandonment of the Champions League is bad for cricket.”When I started to be successful in T20 cricket I captained Redbacks in the Champions League, we reached the semi, and ever since then I’ve been able to develop more of a short-form game and more of a 360-degree game,” Klinger said. “We made the semi-final as underdogs, which for us was excellent. That made me really want to get better and better. You could see how T20 was going.Klinger blossomed as a batsman once he moved from Victoria to South Australia in 2008•Getty Images”I think my late development is just taking experiences in all conditions and learning from them. I have played in India a bit and I have played pressure games in domestic finals in Australia as well. Experiencing those pressure situations helped my cricket. Over the last six or seven years in Australia I have been able to be consistent in all three formats, which is something I’m proud of.”Even with his run-scoring at its height, there have been disappointments on the way. Last year, he moved to Western Australia after South Australia intimated his Shield place could no longer be guaranteed: two months previously he had scored a double-hundred.He left hoping to gain a place in Australia’s World Cup side. They won it without him. He was never thought to be in the running. The call, at 35, may never come – a likelihood that with the World T20 on the horizon he refuses to accept.He came closest to an Australia call perhaps in 2009 when Marcus North was selected instead for a tour of South Africa because of his additional spin-bowling option and made a hundred on Test debut.But back to Lord’s – and the Royal London final against a Surrey side awash with the confidence of youth. What if Klinger fails? Richard Dawson, Gloucestershire’s coach, fields such a provocative question with good grace. He asserts that they would be capable of taking it in their stride – and he has examples too, such as the time when they chased down Worcestershire’s 264 for 8 in early August, Klinger an absentee, but the top four all making runs, to reach the quarter-finals.Team-mate Adam Voges’ (left) Australian debut at the age of 35 should serve as an inspiration to Klinger•Getty Images”We are good enough,” Dawson said. “That Worcestershire match was an interesting one. Michael gets the headlines as he should do, but people have also played around him and in the semi-final Hamish Marshall also took a lot of pressure off Michael by playing the innings he did.Klinger also had the equanimity to consider the possibility of failure. “I failed once along the way in this cup run, so it can happen that you fail, but I will be doing everything I can as an experienced player to perform. The stats will show I have had a good series but I missed three games when I hurt my hamstring and we won two of those.”The most notable of those performances – if not necessarily against the best attack he faced – was his unbeaten 137 in Gloucestershire’s semi-final win against Yorkshire at Headingley. It was a Yorkshire attack far removed from the one that has won the Championship for the second successive season, but Klinger’s 137 not out from 145 balls possessed a certainty that stilled home expectations from an early hour. It was made all the more remarkable because his long-haul flight from Australia after a brief flight home to Perth did not land until Friday night, 36 hours before the game.So what is the secret of getting over jetlag? “A lot of coffee on game day – it got me through,” he said. “That and staring at the ceiling.”As he stared into the dead of night, he would have wondered about the possibility of a Lord’s final, no doubt, as well as that elusive international cap. His brilliance made sure of the first, and, 20 years after he was first dubbed a star in waiting, he will not yet let go of the second. Surrey’s young side will face an old pro still full of drive and ambition.

The pre-series hype for the Cricket All-Stars has been delivered with missionary zeal, though most who will be in attendance are already Tendulkar worshippers

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan in New York 07-Nov-20151:51

Citi Field prepared for All-Stars clash

Shaun Pollock fires a short ball to Sachin Tendulkar. Muttiah Muralithran tosses one up to Ricky Ponting. Brian Lara, Glenn McGrath and Wasim Akram watch from the sidelines. Matthew Hayden waits his turn to bat. Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose share a laugh. Fans are chanting “Saaachin, Saaaachin.” All this in a baseball stadium. In New York.Fifteen years ago, this was schoolboy fantasy: teams full of dazzling cricketers taking each other on. Tendulkar and Lara batting against Shane Warne and Akram; the batsmen cautious one moment, bubbling the next, the bowlers tempting, teasing, vicious. Back in 2000, such battles would have been glorious.Plenty of time has passed. Murali is still smiling, Hayden is still walking down the track to fast bowlers, Ponting is still pulverising pulls off the front foot and Tendulkar still has to be careful while he extends his arms in public lest he punches some rabid selfie-monger in the face. But the players are all retired, their bodies less toned, ample waistlines apparent.Some of the best fielders of their time – and all time – are finding that their palms are sore after fielding drills. Run-ups have shortened. Nobody is diving. The raging intensity of the past has given way to a more avuncular outlook. Don’t think this is a lark, they seem to be saying, but of course it’s all going to be fun.Thankfully for the players the stadium is on the smaller side. Warne has said it reminds him of Eden Park in Auckland. Area-wise it is probably smaller. A straight six from one end will be a catch in most grounds – even in this age of shortened boundaries – and a slashed edge will soar into the terraces at the other end. The baseball mound will pose challenges for long-off and fine leg. Infielders are likely to be as close to the batsmen as slips are on many grounds – which Tendulkar said, will give them “a chance to crack a joke or two”.One big concern before the series: the weather in November. The gods seem pleased: the chill (and snow) has mostly stayed away. The Saturday afternoon temperature at Citi Field is forecast to be 62F (16C).There is talk of fans flying in, and driving, from various parts of the country for this match. The pitch has had a long journey too, on a truck from Indianapolis, around 700 miles away. The 57,000 pounds of turf arrived at 9:30 pm on Thursday. Four-and-a-half hours later, it was laid to rest in a ditch seven inches deep. The groundstaff, most of whom have never seen a cricket match before, finished with work at 2 am. For Ray McNeil, a 40-year-old New Yorker, it was “one of the most exciting things I have worked on”.Many junior cricketers from the New York tri-state area got the chance to interact with Sachin Tendulkar and other Cricket All-Stars on Friday at Citi Field during a free clinic•Siddhartha VaidyanathanThis series was apparently conceived during the MCC versus Rest of the World match at Lord’s last year during the MCC’s bicentenary celebrations. Warne and Tendulkar thought it would be a great idea for frequent reunions. Tendulkar then dialled his friends around the world to ask if they would be interested in this venture. The common response he got: “What took you so long to call?”For the organisers, the US was an obvious choice as a venue. The expatriate population has been starved of star cricketers for decades and there was a good chance that cities with a large south Asian population would embrace the idea: a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see their heroes in the flesh.The pre-series hype has been delivered with missionary zeal. And like all hype, it needs a grain of salt. Tendulkar has said he picked up a bat again with the purpose of spreading cricket around the world. Warne intends to take the game to various parts of the globe thanks to the new form of the game – T20 – which he calls a marriage of baseball and rock ‘n’ roll. Singapore and Hong Kong are on his radar, Dubai too. Knowing Warne, he might want to take cricket to Antarctica. Or to the moon. And if Tendulkar joins him, hordes of spectators will follow anyway.There may have been greater cricketers – though saying so may amount to blasphemy in some parts – but it is difficult to think of anyone in the game’s history who has commanded this level of adoration. Put Tendulkar in the heart of Wall Street on a weekday morning – surrounded by suited bankers rushing to work, one hand clasping a coffee cup, another hand tap-tapping on their smart phones, weaving past bodies while stepping on boots and elbowing their fellow-walkers who are also doing the same – and you will still find 50 people dropping everything and rushing to him like iron filings seeking a magnet. And chanting “Saaachin, Saaaachin”.The scenes in Citi Field on Friday, when the cricketers conducted a clinic for 150 junior cricketers, told a story. Most of these boys, and some girls, were 15 or younger. Sure they were excited to be there – and to listen to these players hand out advice – but there was a palpable absence of awe and hero-worship. Not many appeared overwhelmed, not many were open-mouthed.Those emotions were reserved for those in the stands – the parents – who would have given an arm and a leg to swap places with their kids. The moment Tendulkar finished with the clinic and walked towards the boundary, all hell broke loose. Middle-aged men and women – some executives in their day jobs, others technical whizzes, their hairlines receding, their brows furrowed – were clambering on railings to take a photo. Some pushed and shoved; some tried to take selfies from impossible angles. Through it all they kept shouting his name, as if the louder they uttered it the higher the chances of getting closer.About five minutes into the chaos, one bespectacled lady, probably in her mid 30s, fed up of trying to jostle her way through the crowd, walked up a few rows in the stands, stood on a bucket chair, put her hands to her chest and – as if her whole life was flashing in front of her in that one instant – looked up to the sky and softly exclaimed, .Blessings received, she packed her handbag and prepared to make her way out.

Runs did not flow in the Ashes, but Jos Buttler has dazzled this season in his two T20 outings for Lancashire which have helped the county to another Finals Day

Tanya Aldred27-Aug-2015Standing behind a small table, just inside the foyer of the Central Manchester branch of NatWest, is a man in full-length Lancashire-red nylon pyjamas. He’s tall for a bank clerk, and his hair is immaculate; he has a certain, quiet, presence, yet, remarkably, a handful of people have approached to ask about mortgages.But Jos Buttler is too nice to scoff, even if less than a week ago he was standing at The Oval as Alastair Cook lifted the Ashes, a vital cog in the surprise sporting hit of the summer, and enjoying the most fun he has ever had on a cricket field.He’s back up north now, preparing for Lancashire’s trip to Edgbaston on Saturday for T20 finals day, where they will play Hampshire in the second semi-final. It is another big stage and a chance, perhaps, for his batting to click back, for although his performances behind the stumps were quietly excellent during the Ashes, his batting, so admired since he first walloped a tennis ball as a little boy in Somerset, faltered – he finished with 122 runs at an average of 15.25.”I didn’t score the runs I’d like to, but that can happen,” he says, seemingly sanguine.” I guess that’s the beauty of being an allrounder.”I still feel very confident with my batting, and I feel like I’ve learnt a lot, mentally. I’ve learnt about the intensity of an Ashes series, the media interest and not getting caught up in that and what it takes to score runs. I’ve really enjoyed watching Joe Root, who obviously had a fantastic year, 18 months, forever really!”The biggest thing is, hard as it is, is to worry less. I have to try and look at what can I do as opposed to what people perceive I can’t do.”Lancashire know very well what he can do, even though he has only played two T20 games for them all season. He made 71 off 35 balls as Lancashire beat Yorkshire off the last ball at a heaving Headingley in June and hit another half century off Kent in the quarter-final.Buttler is no stranger to Finals Day. This will be his fifth – he went three times with Somerset (and lost every time) before returning again with Lancashire last summer where Andrew Flintoff narrowly missed carrying them to the title. It was Lancashire’s fifth loss in five attempts. With that history, Buttler and Lancashire can hardly be regarded as a lucky combinationBut he can’t wait.”It’s a great day out. It has become the biggest day of the calendar for the domestic diary, in a way it has taken over from the Lord’s finals. It is such a big thing to get to. It’s pretty much an international environment, with a huge crowd and partisan support. At the start of the year it’s the one every county cricketer pencils in, in the hope that they’ll be there.”

Finals day attracts record sales

NatWest Blast Finals Day is set to be bigger than ever at Edgbaston with record ticket sales confirmed for the biggest day in domestic cricket.
For the third consecutive year, Edgbaston will set a record attendance for the tournament, with 24,300 spectators expected on Saturday with the temporary stand used at the third Investec Ashes Test Match in July swelling the numbers.

And then, in the always polite but slightly steely way of a man who knows his own mind, he hints at a frustration with England’s domestic format, strongly shared by other players, as Wednesday’s PCA survey revealed.”I think that there is such a big opportunity in England to create a T20 competition that really reaches out to kids and the wider audience who might not necessarily be massive cricket fans but can really get into Twenty20. It is such a great format and if we can have a product that works, especially on the back of this summer which has been so exciting, it could be really a good way of getting kids into the game.”You know what it’s like, when you’re that age and you go and watch something with loud music and fireworks and acrobats and cheerleaders and it’s a bit of a show and it’s not just about the cricket, they’ll go home and tell their parents all about it, which is how you get people really involved.”That innings at Headingley – playing for Lancashire against Yorkshire in a Roses match – gives you an idea of what you can have in English Twenty20, a bit of rivalry, a packed house and a really close game.”Joining Lancashire for the 2014 season was a gamble for Buttler who left his beloved Somerset behind to try and further his career hundreds of miles away in a northern city. The coach who recruited him, Peter Moores, left to join England a few weeks into Buttler’s first season, and it was a tough first year. He felt homesick at times, but things have settled down with his girlfriend moving to Manchester and his old England coach Ashley Giles getting the Lancashire job.”It was great that Ashley got the Lancashire job so I wasn’t having to build a new relationship with a new coach from afar. He knows my game from working with me before, which is almost a safety blanket, and makes it a lot easier.”There are a great group of guys at Lancashire who make you feel very welcome even though I’ve not been around much this summer. You feel like you want to do really well for the club and your team-mates because you feel like you’ve missed out and you want to be part of that side.”It really feels like home now. And now when I finish a match I come back to Manchester, which makes a huge difference, as does the passage of time. I took a leap into the unknown to try and get the rewards of what I really wanted from a cricket career and I guess winning an Ashes series means leaving Somerset has really been justified, which makes you feel a lot more at ease with the decision.”And so he returns to Edgbaston in the scarlet pyjamas on Saturday, more familiar, more confident, and determined to win that prize for Lancashire at last.

ESPNcricinfo staff31-Dec-2015The pair added 42 together before Dushmantha Chameera had Guptill caught by Tillakaratne Dilshan at point for 30•AFPWilliamson, standing in for the injured Brendon McCullum, then got into his groove with three successive fours off Angelo Mathews•Getty ImagesLatham too kept the scorecard ticking until rookie legspinner Jeffrey Vandersay produced a double-strike in his second over to dismiss Latham and Ross Taylor•Associated PressWilliamson went onto make a fifty off 65 balls, but fell soon after Chameera removed Henry Nicholls as Sri Lanka pulled things back in the middle overs•Associated PressNew Zealand then saw a useful contribution of 38 from Mitchell Santner as he helped the score past 200, before he was run-out in the 42nd over. Doug Bracewell too chipped in with a score of 30 before Tim Southee struck 16 off the last three balls to push New Zealand to 276 for 8•Associated PressDanushka Gunathilaka gave Sri Lanka a blazing start in their chase of 277, smashing seven fours and four sixes in his 45-ball 65•AFPHe fell to Mitchell McClenaghan, but not before Sri Lanka had raced to 98 in 12.4 overs•Associated PressTillakaratne Dilshan and Lahiru Thirimanne then combined to add 111 runs for the second wicket, taking Sri Lanka past 200•AFPDilshan top-scored with 91, before he was run-out in the 34th over with Sri Lanka still needing 68•AFPThirimanne then steered the visitors to the target in 46.2 overs with an unbeaten 87, as Sri Lanka picked up their first win of the tour to stay alive in the series•AFP

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Feb-2016… but he was frustrated at falling when well set on 48•Getty ImagesAlex Hales took up the cudgels with 57 from 47 balls•Getty ImagesHe became Marchant de Lange’s first international wicket since January 2015•Getty ImagesJoe Root anchored England’s innings with a typically lively 52•Getty ImagesJos Buttler was promoted to No.4 with devastating effect•Getty ImagesHis last ODI innings was an England record 46-ball hundred in Dubai …•Getty Images… and he duly brought up his fourth England hundred, from 73 balls•Getty ImagesBen Stokes carried over his Test form with a hard-hitting 57 from 38•Getty ImagesChasing 400, South Africa lost Hashim Amla early in their innings•Getty ImagesFaf du Plessis found his form with 55 from 44 balls•Getty Images… while Quinton de Kock continued where he had left off with another brilliant display•Getty ImagesHis ninth ODI hundred came from 67 balls to keep South Africa firmly on track•Getty ImagesHowever, a blinding one-handed catch from Stokes extracted the dangerous AB de Villiers•Getty ImagesMoeen Ali picked up key wickets to keep South Africa behind the Duckworth-Lewis par score•Getty Images

After an inglorious spell as an England cricketer, Boyd Rankin is back with Ireland, and keen to finish the journey he helped to start

Tim Wigmore08-Mar-2016On a resplendent Dublin day in September 2013, 10,000 Irishmen crammed into Malahide to see the ODI against England. Only sold-out signs greeted stragglers. It was the image that Irish cricket aspires to project to the rest of the world.Many of those in Malahide had long cheered on Boyd Rankin. In a land brimming with stodgy medium-pacers, here was a different sort of bowler: big, brawny and venomous. Ireland aspired to be a Test team, and Rankin, with the pace and bounce he garnered from his 6ft 7in frame, had the look of a Test bowler.Yet, thousands at Malahide were booing him. For Rankin, six years an Irish player and a proud product of a farming family in Bready, was now making his England ODI debut in the Emerald Isle. “We don’t want our best players playing for England,” read one aggrieved supporter’s sign in the ground. “Irish cricket deserves better.”Ireland had been here before. In 2006 Ed Joyce made his England debut in Stormont a year after leading Ireland to their first World Cup. Three years later Eoin Morgan made the switch across the Irish Sea, playing for England a month after securing Ireland’s qualification for the 2011 World Cup.Rankin’s defection was by far the most irksome. Joyce’s switch came at a time when Ireland had only two paid staff, a chief executive and a part-time PA, and Morgan’s at a time when Ireland were only flirting with genuine professionalism and Test cricket still looked like an age away. When Rankin made his England ODI debut, Ireland were a fully professional cricket team preparing for their third consecutive World Cup and had already declared their intent to gain Test status.

“You can understand the frustration seeing born-and-bred Irishmen not playing for Ireland”

As his second delivery hurtled egregiously down the leg side for five wides, Rankin did not seem like a man relishing opening the attack against his friend and long-time international captain William Porterfield. After a torrid start Rankin responded admirably to take four wickets. Still, he did not much enjoy combining with Morgan, who scored a century, to inflict a defeat upon his home country.”It was a bit of a strange experience to be in the England side in that game. It was not something that I would want to do every day of the week,” he reflects. “You can understand the frustration seeing born-and-bred Irishmen not playing for Ireland. It was quite frustrating for fans that we weren’t playing for Ireland at that stage.”Like Joyce and Morgan, Rankin’s motivation for switching to England was simple. “I wanted to play at the highest level and at that stage it wasn’t possible to play Test cricket with Ireland.”Rankin only got one opportunity to do so with England. In Sydney at the start of 2014, he was awarded his Test cap as England hurtled towards a 5-0 whitewash. He later found out that he entered the game carrying a serious shoulder injury, to which Rankin added a back spasm and cramp during the Test. His was an utterly miserable debut. The delivery that snared Peter Siddle caught behind, Rankin’s solitary Test wicket, was his last for England in a Test.The disappointment that he never got another chance still rankles. “I didn’t feel I got a fair crack of the whip in Test cricket.” So distressed was Rankin in the aftermath of the Sydney debacle that he even briefly contemplated giving up cricket altogether as he recovered from injury.”I had a bit of time to think about that tour. It was quite a tough thing to come from,” he says. “I’ll always look back and be frustrated with how it went but these things happen for a reason and it wasn’t meant to be.”At least Rankin’s truncated England career has proved a boon for his native land. When he was ignored for England’s Test squad to South Africa this winter, despite taking 71 Division One wickets at 22.88 in the two summers since the last Ashes tour, Rankin accepted his fate as an England one-Test wonder. Cricket Ireland then negotiated a deal with Warwickshire to cover the county’s shortfall from Rankin no longer being England-qualified, and in January he made his Ireland return.Rankin took four wickets against Ireland on his England ODI debut•Getty ImagesIt was long overdue. Last year’s World Cup painfully exposed the paucity of pace and variety in Ireland’s attack. Since then Alex Cusack and John Mooney, who opened the bowling together in the World Cup, have both retired. Rankin turns 32 this July, but does not intend to stop for another “four or five” years. He is still young in bowling terms, having not become a regular in county cricket until turning 25.In the World T20, Rankin will be used as Ireland’s middle-over enforcer, a role he has honed for Warwickshire in recent years. A haul of 5 for 33 across his eight overs in Ireland’s two T20Is against the UAE suggested his return to the Emerald Isle has been seamless. “It’s just been really easy. It’s still pretty much the same core of players as it’s been over the last eight-ten years.”While Porterfield will envisage Rankin helping to topple Bangladesh en route to making the Super 10s, his greatest worth lies in the longer formats. Rankin hopes that his second Ireland career culminates in a chance at Test match redemption. “There is the possibility of playing England at Lord’s in 2019 if things go our way. I’m hoping I’ll still be around for that.”To earn that opportunity at Lord’s, Ireland have to win the Intercontinental Cup, and then defeat the lowest-ranked Test team over four matches in 2018. It is a convoluted route, and hardly welcoming considering no country has won their inaugural Test since Australia in 1877. But the pathway for Associates to Test cricket could be opened up if a proposal advocated by David Richardson, for Test cricket to be played in two divisions, with seven countries in Division One and five, including two Associates, in Division Two, is agreed at the ICC Annual Conference in June.

So distressed was Rankin in the aftermath of the Sydney debacle that he even briefly contemplated giving up cricket altogether

“I’m all for that,” says Rankin. “The standard of the top four or five is a lot better than the bottom four or five so it stops those games that are fairly one-sided and gives Associate sides coming in a chance to play the lower sides. It would be a big benefit for us if that were the case. We’d then try and get promoted up to the next level.”Since his return from England, Joyce has established himself as a fine advocate for Ireland’s merits on and off the pitch. Now it is Rankin’s chance to do the same.Together with Porterfield and the O’Brien brothers, Rankin is one of four survivors from the side who toppled Pakistan on St Patrick’s Day in 2007, the moment that awakened Irish cricket from its 200-year slumber. “We can leave it in a much better place than when we started, when it was very amateur and there wasn’t much happening. It’s improved a hell of a lot over the past ten years.”Enduring success would mean ensuring that Rankin is the last Irishman to play for England. “I’m hoping I’m going to be the last person to do it and that in the next few years we can kick on and get the opportunity to play Test cricket and more one-day cricket as well,” he says, envisaging a future in which “Ireland will be a Test nation and we can afford to employ all our best players fully contracted at home, which would be our ultimate aim.”It is a lofty aim, but it is testament to Ireland’s recent success that it does not feel like an absurd one. While Test cricket “could be too late for a few of us,” as Rankin admits, securing it for future sides would be a fitting legacy for Ireland’s greatest cricketing generation. As the disgruntled fan put it at Malahide three years ago, Irish cricket deserves better. Rankin’s return increases their prospects of getting it.

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Apr-2016But he was foxed by a Piyush Chawla googly soon after Manan Vohra fell to Morkel, and the hosts slumped to 47 for 2 in 7.5 overs•BCCIKolkata Knight Riders’ spinners made further inroads – dismissing four of Kings XI’s top six – as the hosts suffered yet another middle-order failure•BCCIDavid Miller’s bad run of form continued, as he could manage only 6 before falling to Yusuf Pathan•BCCIRobin Uthappa took two sharp catches off the spinners and one of Morne Morkel to cap off a good day behind the wickets•BCCIMorkel and Umesh Yadav returned to bowl well in the end, continuing Knight Riders’ chokehold on Kings XI’s innings•BCCIShaun Marsh’s unbeaten 56 off 41 was the sole resistance Knight Riders’ bowlers faced as the hosts could just manage 138•BCCIKnight Riders’ reply started strongly – Uthappa leading the way by smashing the third-fastest fifty in this year’s IPL, off 24 balls•BCCICaptain Gautam Gambhir provided steady support from the other end with a run-a-ball 34•BCCILegspinner Pardeep Sahu removed the openers, with Gambhir falling to a fine catch by Glenn Maxwell at deep midwicket•BCCIAxar Patel chipped in with two wickets but Knight Riders’ chase never looked threatened•BCCIYusuf joined Suryakumar Yadav at the crease and the two put on 18 in 8 eight balls as Knight Riders reached their target with 17 balls to spare, and climbed to the top of the points table•BCCI

With Sunrisers Hyderabad successfully defending 162 and only an AB de Villiers special preventing Gujarat Lions from defending 158, the playoffs have bucked the early-season pattern of near-invincible chasing teams

Sidharth Monga26-May-2016After Sunrisers Hyderabad successfully defended 162 in the Eliminator – a total they thought was below par, a total their opponents Kolkata Knight Riders felt they should have chased without much trouble – captain David Warner revealed he had contemplated what no other captain will admit to. He was actually torn between batting and bowling first had he won the toss. This in an evening game, when pitches usually get better to bat on during the chase, with dew playing a part too. In the league stage, the team batting first only won 11 of 44 evening games.This has been a chasing tournament: before the final day of league matches – a day of high-pressure games – totals were defended only 16 times in 54 matches. Yet, starting with that final day of league matches, things have been different. Sunrisers themselves failed to chase 172 against Knight Riders, a result that forced them to play the Eliminator. It took an innings “a million times better than any hundred” AB de Villiers to prevent Gujarat Lions from defending 158 in Qualifier 1. That too in Bangalore where you might as well not bother with the ball if you’ve only scored 158. Then, on Wednesday, Sunrisers went ahead and inflicted a 22-run defeat – the same margin as their previous meeting – on Knight Riders while defending 162.What has changed? Have the pitches finally become tired or is it the pressure of the big matches? The latter shouldn’t be an issue – four of the six World T20 finals have been won by sides chasing – but Warner is a bit of a traditionalist. “I am a believer of runs on the board,” he said. “In these kind of games. In these pressure situations runs are a lot handier. When you see a total of 160, you can be in two minds as a batting unit. You can either get off to a good start and have positive intent or you can try to get through the first six and set a platform to the end.”There is always going to be pressure in every situation but with runs on the board you can always feel a little bit ahead of the game. Always chasing on a wicket like this, it is hard to start. You saw when they lost wickets in clumps and we didn’t let them have a partnership going, it was hard for the new batter to come in and play shots. The pressure was on the other guy at the other end. That’s what happens in this format. If you get two new batters in, it is very hard when you are chasing.”The Delhi pitch, where Warner played a lot as a Delhi Daredevil, played a big part in his assessment, never mind that England won the World T20 semi-final here at a canter while chasing. “I have played here in the past where it has been pretty low and slow where there is no grass on the square,” Warner said. “I feel they have done a very good job. It’s a wicket that suits – you look at Jason Holder and Morne Morkel – the length they bowled was very hard to hit. You know, tall bounce, hitting the wicket, sort of skidding on bail-high. Very hard to get going and trying to hit and have release shots.”Early on in the tournament, when winning the toss and electing to field was almost half the job done, quite a few players said they expected the trend to change in the later stages. It seems to have happened, listening to Warner talk, seeing how they have defended, seeing how Lions made a game of a paltry total. Earlier if sides were batting first and lost early wickets, the instructions during the timeouts were to keep on swinging. Better to lose in 15 overs when going for a challenging total than to lose in 18 after rebuilding towards a middling total. While chasing still retains the advantage, especially with the final in Bangalore, you are likelier to see sides rebuild and make a match out of similar situations. Who knows, Warner might even bat first if he wins the toss against Lions in Qualifier 2.

As the tri-series moves on from Guyana and St Kitts to its final destination of Barbados, ESPNcricinfo looks at five things we have learnt from the series so far

Brydon Coverdale and Firdose Moonda17-Jun-2016South Africa’s attack is changing
It was only last year that Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander and Imran Tahir almost bowled South Africa into a World Cup final. What a difference a year makes. Steyn is in playing T20 cricket for Glamorgan, Philander is on his way back from a long injury lay-off and Morkel, though part of the ODI squad, has yet to be called on in the series. Even Kyle Abbott has been used only twice. Instead, the attack has based itself around Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi, Aaron Phangiso and the dangerous Tahir. And their results have been encouraging. The times, for South Africa’s bowling unit, are a-changing.Adam Zampa has poise to burn
He started this year aged 23 and with no international caps to his name, but Adam Zampa has quickly shown that not only does he have the skills for international cricket, but also the poise. Bowling legspin in limited-overs cricket can be fraught, for the margin of error is so slim. But Zampa has belied his youthful looks to bring a mature outlook to the side, and is Australia’s leading wicket taker in the series with nine victims at 19.33. It follows on from similarly encouraging displays in ODIs against New Zealand in February and the World T20 in India in March. Zampa has variety, intelligence and confidence – the next step is for him to gain more traction in first-class cricket, and show he is not just a short-form player.West Indies need more from their top order
Since last year’s World Cup, West Indies have done without Chris Gayle in the ODI format and have stuck with Johnson Charles and Andre Fletcher as their opening pair. Their first few stands against Sri Lanka in November were worth just 2, 1 and 4, but their numbers have lifted in this series and their last two partnerships have been worth 74 and 69. It is an encouraging rise. All the same, West Indies still need more from their top order. The No.3, Darren Bravo, is averaging 24.75 this series. Fletcher is averaging 15.75. The team’s top four partnerships are averaging 31.68 this series, compared to Australia’s 37.56 and South Africa’s 48.50. It is hard to win a series with numbers like that.Anyone can beat anyone
World champions Australia entered this series ranked No.1 in the world, South Africa No.3 and West Indies No.8. And yet the teams find themselves, after the Guyana and St Kitts legs of the tournament, locked on two wins and two losses each, only a couple of bonus points separating them. Everyone has beaten everyone once. In Guyana, West Indies beat South Africa, South Africa beat Australia and Australia beat West Indies. In St Kitts, West Indies beat Australia, Australia beat South Africa and South Africa beat West Indies. For the viewer it is the best-case scenario, a genuine contest. Now what will happen in Barbados?South Africa’s percentages matter
This series is South Africa’s first since the country’s sports minister, Fikile Mbalula, banned four national sporting federations, including cricket, from bidding for or hosting international tournaments as a punishment for their slow rate of transformation. Mbalula made it public that the target the federations had agreed to meet in an MOU signed with the sports ministry was 60%. Cricket was not falling too far short, having achieved 55%, but needed to include one more player of colour to meet the minister’s criteria. That meant fielding seven players of colour in an XI and in this series, they have stuck to that on average. South Africa took the field with six players of colour in their first match against West Indies but made up for that with a record eight players of colour in their second game against Australia. They have included seven players of colour in their other two matches. Sticking to this number should ensure the ban is overturned when the transformation numbers are reviewed next year which means if a World T20 is played in 2018, and there is talk South Africa would be the preferred host, they can stage the event. It has been interesting to note the impact this strategy has had on team balance. It has given South Africa’s attack variety and dynamism but has kept their batting line-up a little too short, with the tail emerging from No.7 in some cases.

Sanjay Manjrekar analyses the reasons behind India’s strong batting show on the second day in Kingston, and what West Indies need to do to get better

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Aug-2016‘Rahul could cement a spot in top three’KL Rahul impressed with his third Test century, which Sanjay Manjrekar says, could compel the team thinktank to give him a more stable run in the team1:49

Manjrekar: Rahul could cement a spot in top three

‘West Indies need better leadership and guidance’In spite of having limitations with skill and ability, proper leadership can still motivate an inexperienced West Indies side to do better2:42

Manjrekar: West Indies need better leadership and guidance

‘Pujara does not look the assured batsman he used to be’It looked like Cheteshwar Pujara would be back to his run-scoring ways after a century in Sri Lanka last year, but his recent form suggests otherwise2:00

Manjrekar: Pujara does not look the assured batsman he used to be

‘West Indies had a defensive approach overall’The West Indies bowlers kept the runs in check in the first session, but that didn’t help them much as they failed to take wickets1:25

Manjrekar: West Indies had a defensive approach overall